money

A new report says the tax burden on Michigan businesses has declined slightly.

The Anderson Economic Group report ranks Michigan’s business tax burden 20th in the nation, improving from 21st last year.

Jason Horwitz is a senior AEG consultant. He expects the trend line will continue to go down in the coming years.

“When you look where taxes are so high for businesses in Michigan, the reason to be optimistic is that even though it’s been going down for five years, we would expect it to continue going down over the next few years,” says Horwitz.

I muttered "sorry" as I handed over my credit card to buy an 80-cent locally grown peach from the cute little farm market near the office.

"It's 2015, nobody carries cash" was the hippie hipster cashier's response. It's true I almost never carry cash, but still from time to time I'm embarrassed to use a credit card knowing that the card fees relative to my purchase make no sense for the store. But I hate dealing with cash.

State money is being used to attract everything from a Jehovah's Witnesses convention in Detroit to an international soccer match in Ann Arbor.

Detroit Free Press business columnist Tom Walsh, notes that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has spent more than a million dollars this year to bring in things like conventions and sporting events.

Walsh says it's a common practice and could generate a lot of state tax revenue from out-of-state visitors.

Walsh says the payback from the first few events is about $20 million in state tax revenue.

Tuesday the Michigan Strategic Fund OK'd another $1 million for the program through Sept. 15, 2015.

There is almost a billion dollars worth of state surplus. Should the state spend it or give it back to taxpayers? Should we get a rebate, or should that money be put towards fixing roads and helping schools? And what about the Detroit bankruptcy?

Also, March Madness is upon us. President Obama chose Michigan State to win the NCAA basketball championship. But who did Governor Snyder pick?

Rick Pluta, Captiol Bureau Chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network and co-host of It's Just Politics, joined us today.

You may have heard of the biggest players: Bitcoin, Ripples, and Litecoin, which are taking out the middleman and reinventing the meaning of money. The idea is gaining momentum among college students. Today, we heard how virtual money is opening doors for young Michigan entrepreneurs.

Then, school districts around the nation and right here in Michigan are talking about ways to accommodate transgender students. The ACLU of Michigan's LGBT Project (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) is already working on model policies.

And we spoke with some talented Michigan musicians about how their EP (extended play recording) reached No. 2 on the iTunes electronic charts with virtually no promotion.

Bitcoin: Is it something that could alter centuries of banking and money practices? Or is it an unstable "funny money" fad?

Bitcoin is a digital currency or "cryptocurrency" not backed by any central bank.

But our next guests are banking on bitcoin.

Kinnard Hockenhull actually left the University of Michigan to set up his bitcoin business called BitBox.

And Daniel Bloch is a U of M junior in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and Engineering. He's working with Hockenhull on BitBox and he's launched his own bitcoin-based nonprofit called Coingive that tries to give charities a helping hand with bitcoin. They joined us today.

Michigan had around 170,000 households with more than a million dollars in investable assets. But that's 10,000 fewer than in 2012. Michigan's top year was 2007, when it had more than 214,000 millionaires.

David Thompson is Managing Director of Global Wealth Monitor. He says Michigan's wealth stability is more vulnerable than other states like New Jersey or Maryland with strong centers of wealth creation.

People around the world and right here in Michigan are rethinking money in order to ease financial woes, and they're doing it with local currency. On today's show we found out what it is, and where it's working.

And, we headed up north to a resort town where a vacation can lead to putting down roots and building a business.

Also, one of the co-founders of The Artist Lounge joined us to tell us about how her business is breathing new life into Pontiac.

And, the Farm Bill and food stamp programs expire at the end of September. We took a closer look at what this means for Michiganders receiving federal food assistance.

Also, we spoke with Micki Maynard about what she thinks the future of personal transportation will look like.

First on the show, a State Senate panel has voted to make more than 300,000 Michiganders eligible for Medicaid in 2014. And that's not all: the GOP-led Government Operations Committee said yes to two alternative plans.

So, from the Senate ticking off Governor Snyder by adjourning without voting on the House-passed Medicaid expansion plan to this Senate Panel serving up not one, not two, but three Medicaid proposals, it's a lot to keep track of.

We turned to Michigan Public Radio Network's Lansing reporter Jake Neher for a little help in sorting this all out.

Today on Stateside, we talked with currency expert, journalist, and author Jacqui Dunne about local currencies. In case you're still a little unclear as to how a local currency would work in everyday life, we found out more about it.

Dena Ames is a Traverse City resident. She works at Oryana Natural Food Market where they use and exchange a local currency called Bay Bucks.

Dena Ames joined us today from Traverse City to talk about how Bay Bucks are helping the local economy.

As Detroit makes unhappy history by becoming the biggest city in American history to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the focus has been on money and how the city doesn't have enough of it to meet its crushing obligations.

There are financial experts who believe the troubles facing Detroit and many other cities and states is a warning, a warning that we as a society need to rethink our monetary system and look at the advantages of a local currency.

What's wrong with our current money system? And how would local currencies help solve many problems?

We turned to the co-author of the book "Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity Into Prosperity" for answers. Jacqui Dunne is a currency expert and a journalist.

“The thing you want to do is make it so we can stimulate the economy with monetary policy. A lot of people don’t realize that the reason we’ve had such a long recession is because the Federal Reserve was not able to lower the interest rate because of the way our system uses money. If you tried to make the interest rate negative, which would be what is needed to stimulate the economy, then people would just keep money under the mattress. Because of that, the Federal Reserve is not able to lower the interest rate low enough to get the economy moving.”

This election year has seen a huge increase in the amount of money being spent on political campaigns compared to previous years. A lot of that money is being spent on negative political ads on TV.

As Michigan’s primary election gets closer, and the general election is only four months away, we’re going to see more and more political TV ads. And the bulk of those ads are going to be negative ads.

“I hear the negativity all the time. I’m tired of it. Tell me what it is you want to do not what you think the other guy is going to do," said Troy Hemphill.

“I don’t like to listen to that. I want some positive information," Kiirsten Olson insisted.

“Even when you think, ‘I’m not going to listen to negative ads, I’m not going to listen to negative ads,’ and then one creeps inside your brain. And then it sticks,” Shannon Rubago bemoaned.

Those are pretty typical responses of a couple of groups of people we talked to. We showed them a series of negative ads to see what their reactions would be.

Godward’s first step is to interview customers like Randy Rice. She takes house measurements, checks out insulations in the attic and windows. Then…. she goes all high tech with the “thermal infrared scan.”

“We use this to find flaws in the insulation, in the walls, without having to do any destructive testing.”

She turns on a fan that pulls all of the air out of the room. It creates a vacuum so cold air from the outside is pulled inside. She can see, on a scanner, all the little cracks and holes where air is sneaking in.

Send us anything that’s on your mind, from retirement, to job hunting, to your mortgage and more.

We’ll pose your questions to Ali and Christine, and publish their answers every day during the week of Dec. 19. And, if they pick a question that you sent in, you’ll get an autographed copy of their new book.

Third quarter fundraising results are being reported by those in the race for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. Here to to look at why the money matters are Ken Sikkema, former Senate Majority Leader and Senior Policy Fellow at Public Sector Consultants and Susan Demas, political analyst for Michigan Information and Research Service.

We also talk about Governor Rick Snyder's comments about his decision to run for a second term.

Once upon a time, I was in a social studies class in eighth grade, and we were studying how our system of government works. We were told that in America, we had free elections.

Candidates ran for various offices, and in each case the people decided which had the best ideas and seemed to be the best qualified. We then voted, and the candidate who convinced the most people they were the best man or, occasionally, woman, won.

About 13-thousand Michigan families will stop getting money from the state on October 1st. That’s when the families will reach their five-year federal lifetime limit for cash assistance. The cash assistance program is designed to support low-income families with pregnant women or children until they find jobs.

Sheryl Thompson is with the Department of Human Services. She says people with no income who have children will no longer be able to extend the limit for cash assistance.

"This was never meant to be a long-term solution," she said. "It was always supposed to be a short-term solution as a safety net."

Thompson says Michigan will save about 77-million-dollars this year. Other services including job placement and food assistance are available for people who qualify.

The current credit crunch has made it harder for people to get loans from a bank. Gone are the days when you could walk into your local bank branch, flash your credit score and walk out with a loan. So many are turning to their friends and family for help...but is that a good idea?

To lend, or not to lend

When Pete and Michelle Baker wanted to buy a new house, they needed money for a down payment. Their down payment was tied up in their old house, which they hadn't sold yet.

10-12-13-35-56 (Power Ball 9)... don't pick those numbers. They didn't win last week, and they're not likely to win in the next one hundred million years.

The "Mega Millions" jackpot has reached $330 million today causing a buying frenzy of tickets. Another set of numbers will be drawn tonight (drawings are held every Tuesday and Friday night at 11 p.m. eastern).

According to Durango Bill (and who doesn't trust Durango Bill?), your chances of winning are around one in 175,711,536.

Perhaps another sign that the 'Great Recession' is thawing. Lending to people with a so-so credit score is on the uptick - at least in the car market.

The Associated Press reports "the percentage of loans going to subprime buyers rose 8% in the third quarter, their first year-over-year increase since 2007, according to a report issued Tuesday by Experian, a credit reporting agency."

The campaigns for Michigan candidates for Congress drew a lot of money from out of state.

The price tag for the Congressional campaigns comes in at about $40 million. Rich Robinson is with the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. He says the political parties in Washington, unions, and non-profits with anonymous contributors all chipped in.

“Of the $40 million, I’m estimating $16.8 million of that came from outside sources.”

Several Detroit artists have started what they call “an experiment in micro-funding.” Once a month they host a public dinner that costs five dollars. During the dinner, several local groups pitch ideas for a creative project they’d like to do. Diners vote on the proposals and at the end of the night the winning project takes home the money raised from dinner.